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tv   MONEY With Melissa Francis  FOX Business  December 7, 2012 5:00pm-6:00pm EST

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i know a lot of people in worcester that won't trade guns for $25 gift certificate. >> wegman's is good. david: but not that good. lauren: number one thing is watch next week is washington, d.c. as we move closer and closer to the fiscal cliff everyone will be keeping an eye out on a big deal or could we see a big tax hike. only three weeks before we possibly go over. david: wonder if we trade the guns to avoid a deal for the fiscal cliff. lauren: you're onto something. david: maybe. i don't think they would go for that. "money" with melissa francis is coming next. melissa: i'm melissa francis. here is what is money tonight. a huge break through for u.s. natural gas. a key government study could open the door for exports and create a boom for the economy. the only thing standing in the way though is president obama. we'll drill down with a natural gas company's ceo. plus fighting crazy with crazy. could two plat nurm coins worth a trillion dollars
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each solve our debt crisis? is it as nuts as it sounds? bear with me here, people. our "money" power panel will break it down. are plastic bags on the way to extinction. they're completely banned in two cities. chicago wants to nix them. guess who is behind it? my favorite chicago alderman. i say stop the madness. but alderman joe moreno is here to disagree with me. even when they say it is a not it is always about money melissa: first let's take a look at today's market headlines. mediocrity apparently the reason to buy on wall street today. the november jobs report came in above expectations but the 146,000 jobs added is below average monthly growth for the past two years. that and 350,000 americans left the workforce. it all somehow added up to
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an 81-point gain on the dow. as usual the markets are making perfect sense. also more americans are finally waking up to the fiscal cliff. december consumer sentiment nosedived to a five-year high, because of fiscal cliff fears. a spike in taxes would leave a lot less money lying around for the iphone or ipad. shares of apple fell 2%. thanks to a study by the department of energy the u.s. may be closer to approve natural gas exports. data shows it could improve the economy by $47 billion in 2020. we need that. sounds like a win-win. we have the ceo of bright link oil and gas. chris, thanks for joining us. >> thank you. melissa: what do you make of this report? first of all, do you buy it? do you think it's possible? >> i do think it's possible
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and i'm glad to see it come out. what it really does now it shows over the 12 different scenarios that the government study investigated each one of those scenarios came back and said america will benefit and have a positive economic gain if we export lng offshore to europe, and or asia and to other countries that need our gas. melissa: we have so much natural gas unlocked as a result of fracking, the problem is, intellectually, emotionally we can never wrap our heads on exporting energy. we're sure we have to keep it all for ourselves. do you think we can get over the hurdle, and that the president and washington in general can get over that hurdle? >> that is a great point, melissa. what you're describe something protectionism. you're right, america has a history of wanting to protect our assets and i think that's great but i think the scenario we're looking at now is unprecedented. america has so much natural gas i think we can fuel our transportation, power generation and domestic energy needs and actually export the surplus.
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it could be a cake and eat it too scenario. within eight years or now seven years as we turn into the new 2013 year it could be $50 billion economic impact to this country. so we're tripping over dollars to try to save pennies. weemight be able to impact the economy here. melissa: i know but, you know, there is so much of the country, there are so many environmentalists so many people on the left who hate generating energy. they barely want us to generate enough energy to fuel our own economy and much less more and to actually go make money. i'm worried about getting over that hurdle. >> there are two theories. one theory is we'll never be able to export unlimited amounts of natural gas. if we do export it will be capped or it will be taxed so heavily the premium once pe liquify it, rigas it, go into europe or asia there may not be enough premium to make us competitive against australia lng or qatar lng we compete with. we'll see. if you do look at where the
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america is going on oil side bigger than saudi arabia and russia, natural gas will be there right beside us. we found 200 years of natural gas is up price already. if natural gas is up price increase we can go back to drilling natural gas. we did analysis. if we export 6 billion cubic feet natural gas a day that will only impact the price of henry hub natural gas by 20 cents per million cubic foot. a very small increase. hey, if you export it will double in price. that is not true. melissa: one of the problems as you're drilling down on the details here it is a gas. you have to turn it into a liquid in order to be able to load it on a ship. >> yes. melissa: and export it to another country. you need a terminal there where you can receive it, turn it back into gas. >> yeah. melissa: that adds a lot of money to the price. is it still realistic under those metrics? >> it works because america has cheap natural gas right now and if you look at the
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numbers, the $5 number it adds on top of the natural gas commodity price in america going to asia and 4.50 going to the europe, the difference is the panama canal toll way, about 50 cents there. at $3.60 this morning we're 8.50 going to europe and nine going to asia. so you understand, europe pays 10 to $12 for their gas. asia is paying 16. it is competitive number and makes sense. will america be able to do it? i think we will. the real question is what kind of scale. melissa: i think the government will tax the hell out of it ranning the whole thing. that is debate for another thing. we appreciate your time. good thoughts. >> thanks, melissa. melissa: time for the fuel gauge report. slumping fuel prices and global economic concerns pushed oil prices down for the fourth straight day. crude settled at $84.93 a barrel. that is the lowest close since november 15th. a request to release more water into the mississippi river was shot down by a the
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army corps of engineers. a group of midwestern senators made the appeal. shrinking oil levels are threatening to close barge traffic along the mississippi. this is a huge story. they said release would put upper midwest water supplies at risk. everyone wants wear here. russia's state-owned oil giant, exxon will provide $3 billion financing to develop horizontal oil well drilling in western siberia. commercial development is expected to begin by 2013. turning to jobs. some positive news as we heard the unemployment rate fell to 7.7%. that is good and a step in the right direction. but not everything is rosy. the economy added 146,000 jobs. let's face it that is not good enough. that is the first topic for today's "money" power panel. economist peter morici, you know him. we love him. fox news contributor jonathan hoenig, we love
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him. capitalist pig.com. we can't leave out ian shepherd at pantheon economic advisors as well. thanks to you guys for joining us. peter, let me start with you, what is your reaction to today's jobs number? it is kind of pathetic we get really excited at 150,000 jobs. at this rate it will take us nine years to get back to where we were before the recession. >> one of the big factors with the falling unemployment rate, more people sat down. depending which number, 350 to 550,000 people chose not to look for work or in addition to more. and in addition, about 50,000 jobs were in retail sales. a lot of those jobs are part time. that's one of the big stories of this recovery of the so many people are getting pushed into part-time work. if you put together the discouraged workers and part-timers the unemployment rate is over 14%. melissa: yeah, absolutely. that a great point.
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ian, we're looking 22.3 million people part of the u-6 number we talk about. those are the people unemployed or working part time and really need to be working more in order to make ends meet. it's not great. >> no, it's not great. at the rate we're going those people will still be looking for jobs in years to come. that is tragic. people forget skills. forgetting how to get to work in the morning. it is tragic. we'll have half a generation out of work for many, many years. melissa: jonathan, go ahead. >> it doesn't have to be like that melissa. in a free economy there is unlimited amount of jobs can be created. unlimited amount of wealth. unfortunately we have anything about a free economy. that is why the recovery if you want to call it back is so let that aric. doesn't compare to '74, '92 or '81. melissa: other recessions we bounced back, with 200, 300,000 jobs a month. we haven't seen that so far. i feel like we're not going
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to. i think this is the new normal. what is the main thing you think holding us back? >> the lack of economic freedom. >> what does that mean? >> put yourself in the position of someone able to hire a full-time worker. they know their costs are going up. they know their taxes are going up. they know regulatory expenses are going up and they know if they do make money that will be taxed at a higher rate. a lot of employers are shrugging their shoulders and saying why take the risk. melissa: peter do you agree with that. >> yeah. it is the barack obama effect. only 150,000 a month the man is obsessed what did he say last week campaign, voting is the best revenge. now he is about to take it out on the one or 2%. that is all his focus. he is going around the country, hurricane sandy, rebuilding needs to be done. he is not paying attention to that and certainly not paying attention to jobs creation. instead he is on this vendetta. melissa: ian, at the same time you see companies out there, they're doing what they need to do. we saw ibm for example saying that when it comes to
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their 401(kk, instead of contributing every other pay period the way they have before they will wait until the very end of the year and do their matching then. almost an accounting trick. not really a trick. a way to do it differently they save a lot of money. they hang onto the money for entire year and earn interest on it. god forbid you leave the company and never see the money. for workers you don't earn on money all year long. not in your 401(k) growing. these are the kinds of things we'll see companies doing to adapt to this new normal. >> if ibm gets away with it i'm sure they will. they are a benchmark. if they successfully push it through, the company that didn't fail, didn't have a crisis during the crash we'll see other big companies following suit. one of the problems we have there is not much income growth from the consumer. taking money away to my mind may be good for ibm at micro level but macro level not what we need. we need more cash in the consumer's pockets. melissa: that is absolutely true, jonathan. companies have to do, now
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they're backed in this corner. they can't speak out against washington because they get punished for that. they have the health care costs coming down. everyone's taxes are going up. they have to find ways to make ends meet. i think the fact that ibm is even still matching at all and didn't do away with the whole program is amazing. >> kudos to ibm here's a company not only is the stock doing well they pay contribute, 10% of an employees income to retirement fund. that is called being a good employer. you know what? employment is like that. has to be mutually beneficial. good for the employer and good for the employee. jim is the best example when companies let compensation costs get out of hand. they're keeping their books in order. i wish washington could do the same thing. melissa: let's keep wishing for that. stick around. we have much more with the power panel. could the platinum coin, there it is, the platinum coin in jonathan's hand be the solution to our debt woes? it sound insane.
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>> alchemy. melissa: could be worth a trillion dollars. it is getting real traction. that is not crazy. is this what it is coming too? our panel reacts. at the end of the day it is all about, well, platinum i guess. ♪ i always wait until the last minute. can i still ship a gift in time r christma yeah, sure you can. great. where's your gift? uh... whew. [ male announcer ] break from the holiday stress. ship fedex express by december 22nd for christmas delivery.
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melissa: so we have breaking news right now on chinese energy giant cnooc acquisition. robert gray has the details. >> canadian giving green light for cnooc in the $15.1 billion deal to take over next send. that cnooc would be allowed to do it. it needs u.s. and u.k. government approval as well. because they have nexen has significant assets in both nations. they also at the same time, canada approving a $5.25 billion deal proposed by malaysia petroleum in bid for progress energy. canada selling off assets to two state-owned entities. cnooc deal liable to get a little bit of attention here as well i'm sure, melissa. melissa: very much so. robert, thanks so much. moving on we picked up
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on an interesting idea to solve the debt crisis. here it is. have the government mint two platinum coins and assign them a value of trillion dollars each. deposit the coins directly into the federal reserve, boom like magic we're $2 trillion away from hitting debt ceiling. under the current law this is perfectly legal. our "money" power panel is back to discuss. economist peter morici. jonathan hoenig from capitalist pig.com and ian shepherd son from pantheon macro advisors. guys, what do you think? this is serious idea out there being float the around. we have the peterson institute, they're a bunch of serious folks out there saying i like it. there is nothing obviously economic problematic bit. what do you think? peter, i let you go first. >> i'm surprised. there is a lot that problematic. it is equivalent of printing money. melissa: right. >> essentially that's all it is. basically make a coin. hand it to the federal
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reserve and turns around and put as trillion dollars in your bank account which you start spending. a way around the debt ceiling problem. it gives barack obama the right to print money to spend as much as he wants to. melissa: there is one catch, ian. one point they make we're not printing it to spend money. we already spent this money. it's gone. so we're just sort of fixing part of the debt problem. >> you could make $3 trillion coins which is why it won't happen. the reason it won't happen is politics. if they do this and get away from the debt ceiling thing it gets republicans off the hook. from obama's perspective leting a deal not happen and falling over the cliff, all the polls show republicans will get blamed for that. why would he want to avoid that? melissa: jonathan, are there obvious inflationary problems on this? someone following us on twitter says you will need it to buy a loaf of bread soon. what do you think? >> this is one ounce platinum coin. you can put any value that i
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want but has real value of $1600 a ounce. if they think this plan works you have to be in the chain gang or belief in the tooth fairy. it is delusional on its face. reality exists. it can't be conned. as the panel points out this is explicit inflationary you would need 1.2 billion actual platinum coins to make 2 trillion dollars in wealth. can't happen. melissa: we did a little math. if you were trying to do it the real way you would need 78 million pounds of raw platinum in order to get this done. what else weighs 78 million pounds? let's take a look. 7800 african elephants or 15,600 for f-150 pickups. we could have 312 million quarter-pounders with cheese. they would also add up to about the same weight. we're really saying obviously that is true weight. it is fiat money. like dollars. that is the real idea. that you have two coins out there, boom, we're backing
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this. kind of, i thhnk the point, from an intellectual point of view it's not that different from all the other hijinks that we're pulling right now. we print money. we're putting out debt. i mean you have the treasury putting out debt. federal reserve buying it back and forth. we're doing so many tricks and gimmicks anyway. what is the difference between what we're doing and this? >> this is tremendous scale and political maneuver. wouldn't be economic policy objective but a political stunt. hats off to the guys that say it is legal but it won't work. melissa: go along with me. >> that is even more delusional. a dollar bill is piece of paper with number on it. this actually has a value. $1600 an ounce. now it's a trillion. now it's five trillion. it is completely delusional. the basis, notion of what money is, it is inflationary. it wrecks the economy in the process. melissa: peter, it is
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delusional but so is everything else we're doing right now. i think that's my point the whole notion of the debt ceiling and raising it and owing, spending our children's money, everything we're doing is insane right now. >> oh i agree with that. it's a way around the debt ceiling problem. instead of printing bonds, you create this coin so you don't have to get the debt ceiling raised. the debt ceiling is one last point of restraint we have in the system. it causes us to focus. >> this is like a monopoly token. the coin might as well be a checkers piece. >> exactly. melissa: guys, we've got to go. thanks to all of you. you are fantastic. you have to come back and be our power panel again. >> take care. melissa: all right. here is the question of the day. would two platinum coins solve all our debt problems? we want to hear what you think. like us at facebook.co facebook.com/melissafrancisfox. or follow me on twitter, @melissaafrancis. i loved your responses.
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i read them all. coming up, i love new york and i love my plastic bags but my favorite chicago alderman wants to take them away from me. he is pushing to get them out right banned in "the windy city." i hope mayor bloomberg is not listening. he said it time to end the war on plastic bags. do you have too much money or plastic bags frankly. ♪ . hi, i'm phil miclson.
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♪ . melissa: so you know the question. paper or plastic? well my next guest doesn't want to hear it anymore. he wants to completely ban plastic bags throughout chicago for all businesses larger than 5000 square feet. i think there is a need for plastic bags. paper bags just as bad anyway.
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my favorite chicago auld sister man joe marino is here to disagree with me. thanks for coming back on the show. >> thanks, melissa for having me. melissa: what is your beef with plastic bags? >> not my beef. other countries and other states. it is economic and environmental issue. we use 3 billion with a b, melissa, in the city of chicago. every time we clean out a sewer and every time we clean a park and every time we clean streets we pull the plastic bags out of the sewers and off the trees. they cost taxpayers hundreds of thousands if not millions of dollars a year. that is bet ware i. there is better way we have affordable, composeable bags that look and feel like placic, made of greener sources not petroleum based sources overseas and saudi arabia. there is bet way to do this. other municipalities that have done this have great result. >> break down some of the points. 85 to 90% of the bags are not recycled according to
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"the wall street journal.". >> so we're, paper bags, we're not saying that paper bags are option. best as you know bring your own bags. they have value. we already have stores that do this. melissa: you have to ban plastic bags in order to get that done. why don't you provide incentive. give them a discount. >> we tried to do that in '07. i was not on the council. we tried to recycle bags. it has gone nowhere. they have tried to stop this legislation, friends in the petroleum industry five or six years ago. they did stop it. they did stop it. and nothing's changed in five or six years. the bags are not getting recycled. nothing is changed. in fact it has gotten worse. let me give you examples of companies doing quite well without these. costco. whole foods. alde. trader joe's. they don't use the bags and they're fine economically. melissa: whether they pass the cost on to their customers and customer knows it and is fine with it the hang on. because they have wealthy customers who can afford it.
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but paper bags cost 10 cents per bag. plastic bags cost two to three cents. >> fa you familiar with alde? are you familiar with the alde chain? melissa: i'm not. >> that food consortium has very low-priced, they're goods are very low-priced. they cater to a middle to lower income families. so it is not just whole foods. it is also alde and also costco. melissa: they are more expensive. they have to absorb the cost or pass it onto the consumer. i was saying if you want people to not use -- >> that is not right. melissa: it is absolutely right. margins for a business that is very cheap. if a costco -- >> did you look at study i sent you. melissa: hang on. yes i did. if cost goes up you have to absorb the cost or pass it on to consumers. money doesn't come out of thin air. >> first of all the study i sent you we're getting municipalities in california where their costs have not
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gone up in the stores where they put these in. that is fallacy. melissa: that is impossible. it costs more money. it costs more money to make a paper bag. so the money doesn't come out of thin air. let me ask you this too you talked about composeable, i hope i'm saying that right, bags. >> yeah. melissa: they only work if you have a place to do compost. and not everyone has that. how will you deal with that problem? that is another cost. >> anything that can compost, whether paper or what not has to be compostable. that is education we have to have. dig out a phone book from the '70s hasn't been turned not compostable of anything, paper or otherwise has to be. you're using an argument that people used against styrofoam, big mac and whopper containers. it will cost more money. it will put the guys out of business. they were all over your streets it back in the early 80s and '90s those companies have done very well. i know you put up the bag and say, you hold up the bag
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and say you love the bag. someone doing that with styrofoam containers 15 or 20 years ago. melissa: hang on i have to get a few words in here too. this is disagree with me. >> go ahead. melissa: takes 91% more energy to recycle paper bag than plastic bag. i worry about that. so much easier to recycle bags. every store i go into the new york, when you walk to the front door to your left a full container has bags when people brought back. when i bring back a plastic back i use it to death. i don't buy bags for trash bins in my house. i use this. not like people take them and throw them away. go ahead, respond. >> use actual statistics and some facts instead of intuitive ideas. melissa: no, that is fact. 91%. >> the facts of this are of plastic bags out there less one in 10 are put into the resentable you talk about. less than 10%. the of the 10% put in there, one in four are actually
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recycled. you know why? because they have to be single stream. for instance, in chicago we have blue bin recycling. throw all the recycling in there. sorted and recycled. plastic bags don't go in there they can not be thrown in general recycling. >> 1.2 million pounds of plastic bags were recycled last year. we're out of time. you made a great case. you are a fantastic opponent. alderman moreno, come back again. >> anytime, melissa. melissa: when we have a lot more ammo. >> let's do it. i'm ready. melissa: breaking through military barricades around egypt. and there's word that a crucial vote on egypt's constitution could be delayed. we've got the latest. greece's debt crisis turns its hospitals into virtual ses pools. how it is spawning health disaster that could reach far beyond its borders. piles of money coming up. ♪ . [ abdul-raid ] i've been working since i was about 16.
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melissa: now onto the middle east. the pressure not letting up for egyptian president mohammed morsi. reports say he is ready to postpone the scheduled vote on the new constitution which would cement his sweeping powers. earlier today protesters broke through the barriers around the presidential palace. police fired tear gas at a crowd of almost 1000 people
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out seed cairo tv studios. we have a fox news contributor, specializing in middle east counterterrorism affairs. lisa, it looks like things are getting more out of control all the time. people keep saying this is going to calm down. what is your, what is your take on it? >> well, as long as morsi's factions, the muslim brotherhood will remain steadfast in a power grab and maintaining their agenda, the people, opposition saying this is not what we fought for the company will remain in perpetual revolutionary mode. there is no way around it. morsi will have to make concessions and even when he does it might be too hail too late as far as the people are concerned here. melissa: everybody keeps talking about as well the $1.6 billion in foreign aid the u.s. continues to send to egypt that we're on the hook for. and withdrawing it. i wonder if that makes the situation, if it alienates
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us further from the situation if we withdraw that money. >> we have all eyes on the ground right now in egypt to see how things unfold and u.s. has every interest in seeing how things unfold. look, the bottom line is we could have our enemies and people who undermined us do that for free. we don't need to be paying them to do that. we saw morsi helping iranian factions get the weapons through the sinai peninsula into gaza. that can't happen. we can't have our pivotal ally in the middle east behaving this way and receiving the 1.6 billion in aid as well. melissa: why do you feel this region is so meaningful to us and egypt especially? why should we stay in the game? seems no matter what we do we don't have a lot of influence and we're not well-liked in this area. whether we give money or not we're having a hard time having an impact? >> we are having a very hard time having an impact. the money helps us have a certain amount of influence, whether that be in the next
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chapter where egypt is heading politically, nation-building and, being actually on the ground and helping and, sending lawyers and community organizers and people there who can actually have a exact input there. the money helps as well. when hillary clinton had morsi broker the deal between hamas and, between hamas and israelis it was basically saying look you have to play big brother here. you get all the allowance money. now you have to help out and we're watching you. melissa: on the ground in egypt what kind of influence can we really have? they cash a check we send but beyond that what other kind of help can we give? i'm not sure we're welcome. >> we're not welcome, this regime, the morsi regime, muslim brotherhood compare it to the iranian regime 30 years ago. one of the platforms is creating anti-western
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propaganda within the country. that has been one of the things that happened -- helped them go forward. you have the presence of many different factions within egyptian society. that's what we need to cash in on. not in terms of finances but in terms of support. exactly what we should be doing in iran. we take more secular factions, people came to tahrir square, women, children, people being marginalized by the muslim brotherhood saying we support you. we want you to have a say in the future of egypt as a nation and we're going to help you. that is who we should be reaching out to. that is where the money should be spent on these more democratic and i hate to use that word in the sense of middle east because for every country it means a different thing but to have a say what happens in the next chapter. melissa: lisa, that is an interesting point. thanks so much for coming on. >> my pleasure. melissa: coming up a completely unexpected outcome of the greek debt crisis. their economic problems literally hitting the health of the country, putting its
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hospitals in code red but just wait until you hear how. these are really stunning details coming up. at the end of the day it is all about money. ♪ i love to eat. i love hanging out with my friends. i have a great fit with my dentures. i love kiwis. i've always had that issue th the seeds getting under denture. super poligrip free -- it creates a seal of the dentures in my mouth. even well-fitting dentures let in fd particles. super poligrip is zinc free. with just a few dabs, it's clinically proven to seal out more food particles so you're more comrtable and confident while you eat. super poligrip free made the kiw an enjoyable experience. [ charlie ] try zinc free super poligrip.
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♪ . melissa: some shocking news out of greece now. unintended consequence of its 2 dal billion euro health care debt is making it nearly impossible for hospitals to buy basic supplies like gloves, syringes, let alone crucial medications. on top of that massive layoffs mean fewer doctors and nurses are treating more patients. the severe lack of medical supplies is making much more easy for disease to spread especially from a country whose main industry is tourism. we have lee vinokur from louisiana university shreveport. thanks for joining us. >> my pleasure. melissa: how serious of a problem is this? >> it is a true greek tragedy because the greeks were somewhat responsible. at one point their health care system covered everybody for everything, the most expensive
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medicines. it was 10% of their gdp. and then the imf put them on strict austerity. they had a huge debt. they were borrowing a lot to cover medications and such. and the austerity budget really cut back to the point where kids aren't getting vaccinated now. there is no vaccinations. the pharmaceutical companies won't issue them medications anymore because of the credit and debt that they owe. and if you think it's just greece, i mean the european community, the continent is small. when you're talking about communicable diseases it can be a issue for everyone. >> talk about shots and vaccinations, heard effect, most people getting it keeps the disease at bay. now you see resurgence of things in greece we haven't seen for a while. they talk about basic sanitation. people not wearing rubber
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gloves or reusing them. it sound very serious and yucky. >> no. it's true. i mean they don't, they can't get the new supplies. so that's an issue. i mean there are, you know, some people are trying to donate medicines that they don't use back. you hear about a woman looking for insulin for her 3-year-old child. melissa: wow. >> it is a tragedy but, and it's a serious tragedy. i understand that they have to cut back. there is a debt issue and an austerity budget and they were lax in the beginning but of all the things they should be it should be their health care they're focusing on the most. melissa: yeah. >> european community should know that too because resistant bacteria that are getting out of greece, you know, epidemics of measles and diptheria affect everyone. melissa: that only cure for what is going on in greece is grow the economy. the best way to grow the economy, best resources are tourism. it is a wonderful place to
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visit. if people hear about this and are afraid to go because it is filthy or disease-ridden it will hurt only real asset thee have at this point. >> no, you're absolutely right, melissa. the creditors have to cut them a little slack with regard to some of these things. pharmaceutical companies will get rid of medications when they are a couple days past their expiration date. maybe it us is time to think about that and generic drugs and things like that but it's a real issue and it doesn't just affect greece. we all have to think about that. melissa: lee, thanks for coming on. we appreciate it. >> my pleasure. thanks for having me. melissa: got the sniffles? kleenex will not make you any better. you know what could? take a look at this. slamming back a whole whole bunch of these. new research says beer may be the cure for that winter cold. thank you, science. we're going to explain why coming up. you can never have too much beer. oh, you made a mess. i can't believe it. ♪ .
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melissa: we are joined by personal finance expert and our very own david asman.
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>> personal expert. that's who i am. melissa: the amazing christian says he can work his magic to fix the fiscal cliff. that's right. all he needs is an hour and a room with both president obama and the house speaker. basically he would play a denim and check on them. he says if he can bring them to the right state of mind and through mental suggestion and mental conditioning that will start compromising. it's a trick of like to see. >> i love someone -- it's unmanly kind of love, but i love this guy the three and a half and on my show of force years ago, and he predicted the super bowl victories. unwilling. melissa: before the game? >> before the game. he lost something up in my room and did not give in hawaiian. a ticket home with me. he predicted it. however embarrassing a think he's met his match year.
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to vote -- folks inside the beltway don't think logically. that's what i don't think it'll work. >> i said bring the men. given the track. >> bring the man. they can actually find that compromise. >> of love to see him in there. and now he would make sense. melissa: one that at a magician. we already have clouds in the next. beer is one of our listings. the whale carcass is running near celebrity homes in malibu. 40,000-pound whale carcass causing a gigantic cleanup problem. it is entrenched in the sand making it impossible to tell. the whalers on a private beach. the city doesn't know who will clean it up. everyone's fighting over who is responsible. is that shocking? >> it's a private beach and been. >> i understand why they can't
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do certain things with the will, but i don't understand why they can't chop up in a small piece and dispose of it. again all that. it's sitting on a private beach. by. >> the responsibility lies with the private owners. not everything is the responsibility of the government. not everything is the responsibility of the wildlife foundation. when it's on their beach. is their responsibility. >> i would think there would be highly motivated to move this thing. this is not smell of vision. i have feelings. but. >> had not think it will be allowed to. so many different organizations and government agencies are involved that if they touch the think in a get arrested. a new. melissa: that would be classic. moving on to a lab near st. louis is missing $700,000 in gold dust. it was purchased last year for research. no one is even sure if it was somehow misplaced or actually
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stolen. what you -- >> the story where somebody was knocking down a building in the open the ball and behind the wall were all these jars of coal dust. gold dust. in the wall space there were these jars of coal dust. and just thinking. i don't know. i don't want to get anybody in trouble. melissa: what you think they use it for? >> that's the big mystery for me not a mystery weather was still in a loss. it was probably stolen. >> in south africa they have a train called the blue train which is the most expensive train ride you can get in the entire world. the glasses are tented with cold that's so expensive. melissa: you been on the strength?
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>> i read about it. i would be running so fast. melissa: good news for beer drinkers everywhere. this is why david is hammered right now. an ingredient in beer cause cold like symptoms and even serious ammonia. the downside is you have to drink about 30 years to get the virus binding effect. >> the downside, you say? the downside the drinking 30 years. >> i could not set 30 years in my stomach. i like all the health benefits. it's good for you, your heart, blood clots. melissa: it's good for everything. work on kids. of thing so. >> bubble we going to break the law right now. >> if chardonnet -- >> it's not real beer. apple juice of the little hat on a. my wife had me on this warm cake. that i love your.
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every since the ban on 1i really haven't. melissa: before we head into the weekend a few thoughts about senior saving billions of prescription drugs. >> i saw a headline earlier this week to assess seniors that save $5 billion because of the medicare prescription drug program. demi thinking, well, if senior save 5 billion, where those savings come from? to that's a lot of money. i checked with major pharmaceutical company financial statements and most of them had seen steadily increasing revenues of the last four years. so they weren't short of the 5 billion. even though they say they're discounting prescription drugs for medicare, it doesn't appear it is negative impact of their revenue. so does it mean the drug companies made up by charging youuand me more for our prescriptions? i don't know the answer because i suspect

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